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Abstract
The system of Ongoing Forensic Support that provides expert assistance to customs
authorities in the Russian Federation was analysed, and the interaction between the law
enforcement departments of customs authorities and experts (specialists-on-duty) was
studied. Based on the theory and practice of criminal trials and criminalistic equipment
used to fight customs crimes, the author investigated the participation o f experts in
urgent investigations and examinations that are carried out by the law enforcement
divisions of customs authorities. The author suggests that customs criminalistics
(forensic science) should be routinely introduced into these situations.
1. Introduction
The customs authorities of the Russian Federation (RF) play an important role in the integration of
customs activities in the Eurasian Economic Community (EEC), particularly in relation to forms and
methods of customs control. The sophisticated measures applied by Customs provide a protective
barrier against the criminal infringement of economic security. Such measures are often undertaken
in collaboration with experts and research areas in the Federal Customs Service (FCS) of the RF. The
customs processes used present insights for law enforcement agencies globally.
Customs experts (trained in forensic techniques) and customs officials have cooperated for more than
20 years in the task of examining the quality and safety of freight moved through national borders, and
the veracity of the associated declarations. Customs experts often undertake the customs examination
and register their conclusion, without which, in many cases, it would be impossible to verify compliance
with the relevant customs legislation. This points to the need for improvements to the traditional process
of customs examination (Metelkov, 2013).
Due to frequent changes in federal legislation, it isn’t always feasible to achieve the objectives set
by the state government. As the volume of trade between the states steadily increases, validating the
nomenclature and other aspects of internationally traded goods also increases, and so having high-
quality administration and customs regulation is cmcial as the scientific expert component of customs
affairs evolves (Makarenko, 2014).
from 1 January 2010 (Chemysh et al., 2013). The Institute of Customs Examination1became one of the
most important innovations of the CU. Expert examinations of goods that moved through the various
borders had previously been carried out, but there were a number of problems. As a result, forensic and
criminalistic support of customs activities extended to customs control and law enforcement activities,
which is considered in more detail below.
Today CFCL is the specialised department for regional government and lias an extensive network of
branches.3 All expert divisions from the regions are staffed by personnel from regional customs offices
and are subordinated to the CFCL in the fonn of Expert and Criminalistic Services (ECS). Acting
under regulations of the FCS of Russia, CFCL ensures that requirements of the customs authorities
are implemented through customs control and law enforcement activities, including examining and
searching goods, vehicles, documents and other objects moved through the customs border of the CU
(now the EEC).
A new fonn of interdepartmental interaction on the activities of the customs authorities was created
in 2011—the system of Ongoing Forensic Support (OFS system). However, it is remarkable that the
continuous OFS system for customs authorities’ activities is considered the responsibility of the duty
expert who is on the staff in a regional location of CFCL’s structural expert division. The expert must
be on call at all times and be prepared to carry out different types of searches and examinations when
needed. This siluation is not suitable as it can be difficult to transport the expert to a venue of urgent
investigative actions by the customs authority. Also, there are a number of problems connected with
the quality of criminalistic activity and the processes used to identify customs offences. In our opinion
the problem is a question of the competence of the customs control inspectors who apply criminalistic
science to identify, investigate and prevent customs offences.
On 19 September 2015, officers of the Moscow Domodedovo Airport, in the course of a customs
examination of a Uzbekistan male passenger who was travelling from Uzbekistan to Russia,
discovered 705 grams of heroin concealed in 169 swallowed containers. A customs criminalistics
(forensic) expert took part at the scene.4
In the case of customs control of a passenger flight Moscow-Tehran, a stationary radiation control
system ‘Amber’ was located in the departure hall of the Sheremetyevo Airport. An examination of
the luggage of one of the passengers revealed 18 metal products of industrial production that were
packed into individual steel cases. In was only by carrying out the technology-assisted examination
that it was possible to confirm the suspicions of Customs.7
In our opinion, this type of control is of great importance. Modem customs authorities pay great attention
to such technologies as a way to prevent smuggling of similar materials. Gubin (2011, p. 98) discusses 51
indicators of customs activity effectiveness and one of these is the average time needed to react to evidence
of fissionable and radioactive materials crossing the customs border and to goods exhibiting increased
levels of ionising radiation (three indicators each for airport, railway and automobile checkpoints).
The level of development of science and scientific equipment assumes the competent training of those
persons who apply such means in the course of customs control. In this regard, we consider that the
application of the specified technical means is impossible without knowledge in the field of modem
criminalistics.
When technical means of customs control are applied, the inspector uses certain techniques which, as a
mle, are developed within special scientific disciplines. Those involved in the identification of criminal
encroachments should, in our opinion, be trained in criminalistic science. This is because criminalistic
science includes knowledge and data from humanitarian and technical fields as well as information on
the criminological characteristic of similar crimes. In other words, the methods of criminalistics apply
experience of disclosure of similar or identical types of customs offences.
In order to achieve reliable results when implementing procedures of customs control, the methods of
criminalistics described above may be applied by experts in this area, and for the expert to participate in
customs control activities, the different divisions must interact and cooperate.
We suggest that the interaction of divisions of customs control and experts will be optimised if:
• the customs inspector requests criminalistic services when they are in a situation where specialist
knowledge is required
• the head of the specified service sends the specialist-on-duty to the venue of customs control
• once the specialist has completed their investigation, they transfer their results to the forensic expert
• the forensic expert carries out an examination and prepares the expert report and transfers it to the
division of customs control within two working days (see Figure 1).
person because he/she bears personal criminal and administrative liability that he/she specifies in the
expert’s report. In other words, the expert can draw conclusions following the results of searches and
does so only on the basis of their own actions, beliefs, experience, knowledge and qualifications. None
of the heads of customs laboratories can influence their research activities, and if the expert displays
personal or departmental interest, administrative and criminal responsibilities will also go through the
court. It is necessary to understand that there is a possibility of carrying out repeated or additional
examinations, which results can confirm or disprove the primary examination. It means that there is a
lawful opportunity to check reliability of departmental customs examination and to be convinced about
the expert’s bias, or lack of bias, in the outcome of the case.
Customs laboratories require specialised equipment and qualified personnel.8 CFCL in Moscow has
modem chromatographs, video spectral comparators, program hardware complexes, electronic and
digital microscopes, equipment for complex chemical analysis, and equipment for the solution of expert
tasks that involve methods of nuclear magnetic resonance. On average, return on investment of customs
laboratory equipment takes two to three years. But here it is necessary to consider that all this is possible
only in the presence of authentic expert opinions (expert’s report) that are subsequently accepted by
Customs or the court. At the same time, separate regulations oblige customs authorities to take the results
of the examination into account. However, in practice this does not always occur.
As for criminalistic activity, so-called preventative measures are also important. In other words, the
customs criminalist work also applies to preventing prohibited and dangerous goods being imported, such
as drags, firearms, explosive and toxic agents, and counterfeit products. In this case, it is not necessary
to consider the economic efficiency of such searches, as such work is important for national security.
• In the long term, a Forensic laboratory fully fitted with adequate investigation and analysis
equipment should be established by the NCS. This wifi entail adequate funds and requisite
manpower and skill development to ensure maximum utilization.
• That the NCS take proactive steps to prevent and investigate breaches of computer security
protocols and illegal access to NCS computer network
• NCS should establish a virtual boarder [sic] fully fitted with remote sensory facilities ... this
will enable the NCS to cope with the porous and extensive boarder [sic] network of the nation.
Other security agencies of the country can also benefit from this (Slide 29)9
It should be noted that not all states have expert divisions in customs authorities. In some countries
customs law enforcement divisions ask other departments for the help of experts or criminalists, such as
from the law enforcement (internal affairs) bodies of the countiy. This author believes that the optimum
structure is for the customs service to have its own expert division, equipped at the modem level, that
will allow greater prevention of customs crimes and more effective collection of customs payments.
11. Conclusion
We believe that the introduction of the institute of customs examination was one of the most important
innovations of the Customs code of the CU of 2010.
There is, however, a need for a scientific-theoretical definition of such a specific sphere of knowledge,
the analysis of which may give grounds to believe that it is nothing more than the use of criminalistic
equipment in the sphere of customs control. However, such usage represents only one specific aspect
of criminalistics. Proceeding from the above. Customs criminalistics may be defined as all specific
activities of customs authorities relating to investigation, identification and prevention of customs
offences (Makarenko, 2014).
In the existing application of experts’ activities in customs authorities of member states, the requirement
for the EEC to develop normative legal documents including provisions which regulate activities for
an assessment of the conclusions of customs experts when settling disputes in the field of customs
regulation in the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) seems to be necessary. The systematic
and qualified introduction in practice of the results of the expert research of customs laboratories in the
EEU directly impacts many aspects of customs regulation, such as classification of goods, determination
of customs value, calculation of customs payments, and proving the facts of smuggling and false
declaration of goods.
The OFS system for law enforcement activity (in other words, customs criminalistics) must become,
and indeed has already become an important scientific support for Customs, and neither operational
search activities, nor urgent investigative actions that are performed by customs authorities should be
undertaken without it.
References
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Notes
1 Customs examination means the organisation of searches that are carried out by customs experts with the use of special and
scientific knowledge for the solution of issues in the field of customs regulation (Chapter XX, Customs Code of the Customs
Union).
2 The author presents descriptive parts of a crime without specification of data. Full texts of news presented by law
enforcement agencies (including the Federal Customs Service) can be freely accessed on the official sites of state
departments, and also on their pages on popular social networks (Facebook, Twitter, VK, etc.). Also, information from the
following websites was used: www.gov.uk;www.wcoomd.org;www.ice.gov.
3 Central Forensic Customs Laboratory (CFCL) is one of the strongest scientific research centres equipped with modem
analytical equipment and staffed by qualified personnel in the field of customs and forensic examination.
4 Source: http://eng.customs.m/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1931:law-enforcement-activities-of-the-
federal-customs-service-m-2015&catid=32:news-cat&Itemid=1858&Itemid=1857/
5 Source: https://www.veko-online.de/92-archiv/ausgabe-l-16/643-kriminalgeschichte-hans-gross-begruender-der-modemen-
kriminalwissenschaften.html
6 Such as technical means of customs control, customs examination; criminalistic search; metrological support; IT support;
communications; customs transport; and other supportive technical means.
7 Source: http://www.tks.ru/crime/2011/12/16/05/
8 Creation of criminalistic services at each customs laboratory, which serve regions with large volumes of customs
registrations seems necessary. The organisational and regular structure of such services for each customs laboratory varies,
the main criteria for determining the number of staff being the area covered and the volume of goods crossing the customs
border.
9 ‘Protecting Nigerian Land and Cyberspace Borders Through Digital Forensics’, presentation by Professor Gbenga Ilibeye,
Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Federal Ministry of Finance, Federal Government of Nigeria on 1 December 2012.
V la d im ir M a k a r e n k o
Vladimir Makarenko has more than 13 years’ experience in the customs authority of
it
three types of customs identification, including a personal number press and customs
registration stamps. At the beginning of his career, Vladimir conducted research on
more than 5,000 prints of the various seals and stamps on customs documents, from
which some 1,700 forgeries were detected. Vladimir has considerable experience in the
field of criminalistic and forensic knowledge, applying his skills in the field of customs
regulation. His current position as Customs Legal Counsel of the Russian company,
'ZENON' Inc., involves practical activities related to arbitral procedures in customs
legal relationships.